In order to be efficient for the trade community, the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) needs “additional critical development,” including to allow releases of goods at the border, entry/entry summary programming, post-release data processing capabilities, as well as “adequate, clear and decipherable messaging from CBP to the trade,” according to the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA). In a white paper that circulated Tuesday outlining r...

The U.S. Department of Commerce has given its final approval to the Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) to designate all of Miami International Airport (MIA) as a foreign trade zone (FTZ) magnet site, according to a statement from the airport. The magnet site designation, which is an expansion of Miami-Dade County’s existing FTZ 281, will allow airport tenants to operate manufacturing, warehousing and/or distribution facilities on MIA property, as well as reduce or even elimin...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has entered into its first formal program accepting “donations” from the private sector to help enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) with Procter & Gamble (P&G), the agency announced Thursday. Under the program, CBP and P&G will work to prevent counterfeit P&G products from entering the U.S. The company will donate testing devices to determine product legitimacy, CBP said. Section 308(d) of the Trade Fac...

The U.S. government entered into settlement agreements totaling $908,100 to resolve allegations that United Kingdom-based Pure Collection Ltd., and its CEO, Samantha Harrison, illegally evaded customs duties that would’ve been paid by customers by breaking up single shipments worth more than the U.S. import de minimis amount into shipments of lesser value, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced. UK citizen Andrew Patrick filed suit under the False Claim Act’s whistleblower provi...

The Trump administration on Monday requested $47.5 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal 2019, a $3.5 billion increase over what it had requested for FY 2018, according to DHS. “The President’s budget invests in securing our physical and maritime borders, enforcing our immigration laws, and advancing cybersecurity and aviation security to safeguard Americans from those who seek to do us harm,” DHS said. DHS is prop...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collected approximately $40.1 billion in duties, taxes and other fees in fiscal 2017, including over $34.8 billion in duties, the agency announced Tuesday. Imported cargo containers at U.S. ports of entry increased 5 percent year-over-year in fiscal 2017 to over 28.5 million, with CBP processing 33.2 million entries and $2.39 trillion in imports during the year. Further, after the fiscal 2017 launch of the e-allegation web po...

Jianhua “Jeff” Li, a 43-year-old Chinese national living in the United States on a student visa, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey district court Friday to his participation in a scheme to smuggle counterfeit Apple iPhones and iPads from China into the United States, the Justice Department said. From July 2009 through February 2014, Li and his company Dream Digitals conspired with Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca, and others to smuggle over 40,000 counterfeit electr...

Cargo Network Services (CNS), the U.S. subsidiary of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has selected 40-year air cargo industry veteran, Michael White, to serve as president. In this role, White will be responsible for the Miami-based organization’s operations, including financial settlements, commercial operations and advocacy for its member airlines and freight forwarder customers. White joined CNS in 2008, and most recently served as vice presid...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection wants to “slash the cash” that’s collected at the country’s ports of entry by making it efficient and easy for the nation’s importers, customs brokers and carriers to pay their cross-border, trade-related fees and taxes electronically. The agency collects about $46 billion in revenue for the U.S. Treasury each year. The majority of this amount is paid by importers and customs brokers through the Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) system in the form ...

As U.S. Customs and Border Protection prepares to roll out revised security standards for its primary industry security partnership program, known as the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT), questions are being asked by industry about how the program fits into the nation’s newly proposed Trusted Trader program. While industry has generally supported CTPAT, it has often questioned the actual benefits—fewer inspections and detentions at ports of entry—that were pro...

Cargo originating in five Middle Eastern countries will undergo additional screening per a new set of rules set out by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the agency told American Shipper. The U.S. government shutdown over the weekend and into Monday meant that no formal written statement has been published on the TSA's website. However, officials told reporters that the decision to implement new cargo screening rules was based on intelligence indicating ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has traditionally been an import focused agency. Established under the Department of Treasury in 1789, the U.S. Customs Service was a revenue collection agency for import duties. It was only after 9/11 and the creation and subsequent rehoming and renaming of the agency under the newly created Department of Homeland Security that CBP’s mission exponentially expanded to include physical security and enforcement at the border. L...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) airport officials have not verified licenses for some radiological imports and its processes do not ensure all of those shipments are identified, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Wednesday. CBP is responsible for verifying radiological imports are authorized or licensed, such as through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or state licensing. CBP officials at two of four airports GAO visited ...

President Donald Trump signed the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology (INTERDICT) Act into law last Wednesday. The law requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection to increase the number of chemical screening devices available to officers in order to seize opioids illegally imported into the U.S., the White House announced. The House voted to pass the bill on Oct. 24, 2017, and the Senate used an exp...

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday that promises to eliminate $1.1 billion in import tariffs during the next three years and increase U.S. manufacturing output by more than $3.1 billion. The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act (H.R. 4318), once enacted, will effectively eliminate on a temporary basis tariffs on imports of nearly 1,700 products not available in the United States. “I am proud to join with my colleagues to support American worker...

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday to support a bill that would make the U.S. postmaster-general the consignee for goods, excluding documents, mailed into the United States. During a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing for the Department of Homeland Security, Nielsen told Klobuchar that DHS is working with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure “we can, in fact, implement” the Synthetics...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is postponing the initial implementation of changes to its in-bond regulations for several months, after it had planned to end a “flexible enforcement” period for enforcement of the new regulations on Feb. 25, the agency said last Thursday in a Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) message. The agency is also indefinitely postponing the implementation of a provision in the Nov. 27 final in-bond rule to require the inclusion of the six-di...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) average timeline for hiring field officers has remained prolonged, and several recruitment targets have expressed concern that they could be subject to an imminent pay freeze if they're hired, National Treasury Employees Union National President Tony Reardon said Tuesday during a House Homeland Security Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee hearing. Reardon said that prospects of a pay freeze have been a deterrent for potential CBP ...

The Commerce Department has set preliminary countervailing duties on imports of uncoated groundwood paper from Canada, which is commonly used for printing newspapers. U.S. Secretary Commerce Wilbur Ross said the department’s “preliminary decision allows U.S. producers to receive relief from the market-distorting effects of potential government subsidies while taking into account the need to keep groundwood paper prices affordable for domestic consumers.” In it...

The Commerce Department has set antidumping duty rates on carbon and alloy steel wire rod imports from South Africa and the Ukraine. In its South Africa investigation, Commerce assigned a dumping rate of 142.26 percent for Scaw South Africa (Pty) Ltd., or Scaw Metals Group, and Consolidated Wire Industries. Davsteel Division of Cape Gate (Pty) Ltd. was found to have no shipments of subject merchandise during the period of investigation. All other South African producers/exporter...

Arizona is becoming home of the nation's first international air cargo hub to house both U.S. and Mexico customs, according to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. Dubbed SkyBridge Arizona, the hub will operate out of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and will enable trade in Mexico and throughout Latin America more efficiently without having to go through the international customs center in Mexico City, the governor said. The customs portion of the project - Unified Cargo ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) will become the system of record for all statements on Jan. 6, except for reconciliation statements, which will be deployed in ACE on Feb. 24, CBP said in a Dec. 29 CSMS message. CBP will deploy ACE statement reports with the Statements “universe” no later than Jan. 13, which will replace the Account Revenue universe, the agency said. Two existing “quickview” reports for customs broker...

Countervailing (CV) duties on imports of supercalendered paper from Canada by producers Port Hawkesbury Paper, Resolute FP, and Irving Paper are set to fall after the U.S. Commerce Department preliminarily calculated new CV duty rates in connection with an administrative review on that product-country combination, the department said in a statement. Port Hawkesbury Paper will see a CV duty rate of 15.65 percent, Irving Paper Limited a CV rate of 5.13 percent, and Resolute FP Ca...

WiseTech Global has acquired two European customs solutions providers, both headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the logistics software firm announced Dec. 20. The two companies are ABM Data Systems, a developer and provider of customs clearance solutions accredited for the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany; and CustomsMatters, a customs solution provider in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. ABM Data provides...

Freight forwarders are the world’s facilitators of exports, but many of these firms may not be using that same level of expertise internally to facilitate export regulatory compliance across their own organizations. The results of this lack of commitment to export compliance could result in Commerce Department enforcement agents eventually knocking on the door, and the imposition of significant fines and penalties for wrongdoing. Michael Ford, chief compliance offic...

The Commerce Department on Tuesday announced preliminary antidumping duties for imports of fine denier polyester staple fiber from China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan. Dumping occurs when foreign companies sell their goods in the United States at less than fair value. In its China investigation, Commerce calculated preliminary dumping rates of 181.46 percent for Jiangyin Hailun Chemical Fiber Co. Ltd., and 63.26 percent for Jiangyin Huahong Chemical Fiber Co...

A strike carried out by Brazil’s customs is entering its eight week, resulting in delays at ports and for truck drivers, especially at the Argentina and Uruguay borders, according to reports from multiple media outlets. According to reports, thousands of trucks are waiting three to eight days for authorization from the Brazilian Receita Federal (RF or customs office) at multiple border check points, while at ports, the strike has caused containers to miss their sailings, thus a...

While Canada and the United States have their occasional trade disputes and stark differences during the current renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), both countries remain committed to improving the flow of passengers and cargo across their shared border. Canadian government legislation (Bill C-23), which received royal assent Tuesday night, promises implementation of an agreement on land, rail, marine and air transport to expand passenger pre-clear...

The Dec. 11 AS Daily article " Customs to test launch electronic payment for commercial vessel fees ," about U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) pilot test for electronic payment of taxes and fees imposed on commercial vessels at four ports of entry - Los Angeles/Long Beach; New Orleans; Gulfport, Miss.; and Mobile, Ala - was clarified to explain that the pilot will be "incrementally" released over the next year. In addition, the Mobile Collections and Receipt (MCR) aspect of the pil...

A pilot test to automate calculations of commercial vessel fees and taxes and generate receipts, which started in April 2017, will expand to electronic payment of taxes and fees imposed on commercial vessels at four ports of entry in fiscal year 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said. The pilot program introduced the Mobile Collections and Receipt (MCR) application in fiscal year 2017. In fiscal years 2018-2019, it will incrementally develop and release an interface...

Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, 46, has served as the steadfast head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and face of the largest federal law enforcement agency to the trade since his nomination by President Donald Trump in early April 2017 to lead CBP. On Thursday afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee voted to install McAleenan as the country’s next CBP commissioner. His confirmation hearing before the committee was held at the end of October. McAleenan's con...

In today’s uncertain trade, political and economic environment, Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) provide stability by offering importers the ability to maintain inventory or manufacturing inputs in a bonded area, prior to the formal entry of merchandise with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and payment of customs duties and fees. When the decision is made to enter an imported good, or their corresponding finished products produced in an FTZ from imported goods, into U.S. Custom...

While U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s basic responsibilities with regard to cross-border trade—security, enforcement and facilitation—remain unchanged, the agency’s leadership is now looking to the road ahead in terms of managing future trade growth, as well as changes. Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner for CBP’s Office of Trade, told attendees of the East Coast Trade Symposium on Tuesday, that that road over the next three to four years will consist of four di...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will roll out the next deliverable of post-release capabilities in its new umbrella system on Dec. 9, but will delay the portion focused on statement filing in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) until Jan. 6, 2018. CBP officials said delaying the statement filings would give importers and customs brokers the opportunity to test with new ACE statement reports. On Dec. 9, ACE will become mandatory for the Foreign Trade ...

Canada plans to press forward with legalizing the use of recreational marijuana by July 2018, and the possible impact on trade flows at the border already has U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials concerned. While some U.S. states have relaxed the ability to purchase marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes, the drug remains a prohibited substance under federal law. Todd Owens, executive assistant commissioner for CBP’s Office of Field Op...

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) has filed a petition with the U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) asking it to reconsider the responsibilities assigned to customs brokers when handling imports of radio frequency (RF) devices. In a final rule published on Nov. 2, the trade association said the FCC inappropriately equates brokers with importers and consignees, who have an ownership interest in the product, are primary part...

U.S. customs brokers are concerned that the industry will need more than the next four weeks to comply with new entry data requirements for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP). Starting Jan. 1, SIMP will require U.S. seafood importers to submit detailed data elements for 11 species of seafood and seafood-containing food products. Many importers and their customs brokers, which will file the SIMP inform...

The Commerce Department has preliminary determined that corrosion-resistant steel (CORE) and certain cold-rolled steel products imported into the United States from Vietnam are produced from substrate originating in China in order to circumvent existing antidumping and countervailing duties against these products from China. In response, Commerce has instructed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to begin collecting cash deposits on imports of both CORE and cold-rolled steel pro...

Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, 46, has served as the steadfast head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and face of the largest federal law enforcement agency to the trade since his nomination by President Donald Trump in early April 2017 to lead CBP. On Thursday afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee voted to install McAleenan as the country’s next CBP commissioner. His confirmation hearing before the committee was held at the end of October. McAleenan's con...

A six-month pilot program between U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexico’s SAT was launched last month. A six-month pilot program that allows the pre-inspection of U.S.-bound cargo in Mexico by U.S. customs officials has launched after six years of negotiations, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson has confirmed. The program, therefore also allows Mexican customs officials to work on the U.S. side of the border to inspect goods headed for Mexico, ...

Licensed customs brokers can begin turning in their 2018 triennial status reports to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Dec. 15, with a final deadline for submissions of Feb. 28, 2018, CBP said in a statement. Each entity holding a broker’s license must file a status report with CBP and pay a processing fee of $100 every three years. Licensed customs brokers must include an employee list, if applicable, with each status report submitted to CBP. “Individuals...

The world is full of hungry pests and noxious weeds that if left unchecked could quickly decimate the nation’s agricultural crops and forests. Standing in the way of these tiny invaders at U.S. land, sea and airports, however, is a group of specially trained Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers ready to stop them in their tracks. They are the agency’s agriculture specialists. Armed with real-time pest-related product and shipment origin intelligence from the...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement various cargo processing fee increases for importers and carriers, effective Jan. 1, according to a notice in the Federal Register . Under the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which amended the 1985 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), CBP is authorized to adjust its cargo processing fees in line with inflation. For fiscal year 2018, this is done by comparing the average of t...

The American trucking industry in recent years has experienced a rush of high-profile federal regulatory actions, including hours-of-service rules and in-cab electronic logging device (ELD) requirements. However, another far less publicized regulation is rapidly approaching. Starting Nov. 27, truckers will be required to file information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) related to cargo transiting the country in-bond electronically. In-bond shipments are imported merc...

A working group within the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) on Tuesday recommended that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) establish a set of protocols to help agency officials and the trade navigate periods when critical systems are down. The idea of a systems downtime protocol was first discussed at the previous COAC meeting Aug. 23 on the heels of a near full-day outage of CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system Aug. 2. The subcommitte...

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) is urging Capitol Hill lawmakers to renew a trade preference program that allows for duty-free imports of certain approved goods and materials from developing countries before the program expires at the end of the year. According to the NCBFAA, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) helps lower the costs of raw materials and component parts for many U.S. manufacturers and subsequently lowers prices ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stepped up its industry outreach to ensure that the country’s importers aren’t running afoul of legislation that prevents the importation of merchandise made by North Korean nationals under force. Under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act, which was passed by Congress on Aug. 2, any significant merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured entirely or in part by North Korean nationals or citizens is prohibited from en...

The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) has almost become a dirty word among shippers who have participated in the program. The primary complaint from shippers is that the benefits of the programs never matched the cost to comply. It’s a well-worn argument against a program so old it actually predates the formation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency that now oversees the trusted trader program. Yet CBP has spent the last two year...

Customs brokers have been regulated by what is now U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since 2002. Prior to that, the industry was regulated by the U.S. Customs Service, which was housed within the Department of Treasury, and had been since the birth of our nation, quite literally hundreds of years. The mission of the U.S. Customs Service was relatively straightforward: collect the revenue that the country was due on internati...

It always seems so simple. A decision is made to expand your company’s supply chain, or to follow a customer into a new overseas market. You take a quick look at the map and start asking yourself how you are going to get product and equipment from Point A to Point B. The call to action goes out across the company, and eventually down to logistics, and even further into the customs group. Then the question comes back: “How in the world will we get it there?” Like oth...

The U.S. departments of Commerce and Homeland Security have entered a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to work together to facilitate international e-commerce and strengthen enforcement of U.S. customs laws related to these shipments. “Worldwide retail e-commerce sales are expected to top $2.4 trillion by 2018, up 26 percent from 2016,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “Having the infrastructure in place to help U.S. companies compete for these e-commerce s...

At the end of a nearly hour-and-a-half-long confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan “one of the best witnesses to come before the committee in a long time.” The senator added that he will make it a priority to “push the nomination through the process as soon as possible.” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who serves as the committee’s ran...

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has ordered Customs and Border Protection to block future timber imports from Peruvian exporter Inversiones Oroza for its persistent violations of the Forest Annex of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement. This is the first enforcement action taken by the Interagency Committee on Trade in Timber Products from Peru against illicit timber shipments from the South American country. Last year, the Timber Committee requested ...

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has completed the integration of its Cargo-XML messaging standard with the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) Cargo Targeting System (CTS), IATA said in a statement. Cargo-XML’s integration with WCO CTS will allow airlines and customs administrations to more efficiently communicate and evaluate safety and security risks associated with air cargo, according to the association. "Simplifying processes, enhancing effic...

Notations, a Warminster, Pa.-based garment wholesaler, has agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle alleged violations of the False Claims Act, according to a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The government's complaint against Notations said the company “repeatedly ignored warning signs that its business partner, which imported garments from China, was engaged in a scheme to underpay customs duti...

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article highlighting the challenges the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) face with regard to the dangers of un- or under-regulated mail. To piggyback off of that excellent introduction to the subject, the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) would like to note one of the most underappreciated actors when it comes to homeland security and consumer defense: the customs broker. &nb...

The on-demand transportation management software provider MercuryGate has established an agreement with cloud-based global trade management software provider Integration Point that will allow MercuryGate users to access Integration Point’s denied party screening tool, MercuryGate said in a statement Tuesday. “There are many benefits to integrating GTM capabilities with TMS systems,” Tom Barnes, CEO of Integration Point, said in a statement. “GTM and TMS enables organizations to ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin assessing immediate penalties for shippers with improperly treated and marked wood packaging materials in their international shipments starting Nov. 1, the agency said in a statement. Beginning in September 2005, non-exempt wood-packaging material (WPM) imported into the United States has had to be treated at approved origin facilities to kill off any potential timber pests. The treated material must include a visible mark tha...

U.S. Customs and its Mexican counterpart are eliminating separate inspections at the cargo facility south of San Diego on the US-Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says that it plans to partner with Mexico’s Servício de Administración Tributaria (SAT) and begin conducting joint cargo inspections at Customs’ Otay Mesa Cargo Facility next month. Under the Unified Cargo Processing pilot program, Customs and SAT will eliminate separate inspections at the Otay M...

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada enters into force provisionally on Thursday, Sept. 21. First signed in October 2016, and ratified by Canada in May 2017, CETA will open bilateral trade between Canada and the EU and reduce tariffs. Once in full effect, CETA will also implement a new and improved Investment Court System to r eplace the current investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism that exists in ma...